The importance of training personnel to respond to events such as fires, violent domestic events, accidents or natural disasters (earthquakes, tornadoes, floods or the like) is well recognized. Similar comments apply to military training/mission rehearsal.
Training/rehearsal activities can last hours or days and can involve a large number of geographically dispersed participants. The value of collecting information as to how the exercise was carried out to facilitate an accurate and meaningful after-action review is also well known. One such system and method are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,106,297 issued Aug. 22, 2000, assigned to the assignee hereof and entitled “Distributed Interactive Simulation Exercise Manager System and Method”. The '297 patent is hereby incorporated by reference.
While the primary value of conducting a performance session, such as a training or exercise session, is an effective and accurate assessment, (the basis of measurable and verifiable feedback to the session audience or participant, the after-action review (AAR)) obtaining such assessments during such sessions can be difficult. A problem in efficiently assessing, or evaluating, performance during complex tasks is defining what is important to be assessed at any given time, and what assessment criteria should be used.
It has been known in prior art to define assessment criteria and guidance prior to the assessment session. The assessor is then required to monitor performance activities to determine what type of events are taking place, recall and apply the applicable assessment criteria and assessment guidance, and record the applicable assessment. This approach is labor intensive, particularly for complex tasks involving teams of several individuals, and teams in different locations.
There continues to be a need for improved, preferably real-time evaluation systems and methods. Preferably such systems and methods will be flexible and cost effective to implement so as to be usable to provide assessment information for a wide range of civilian and military exercises.